The Locomotive Volume 9 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1888 Excerpt: ...The usual expert, with the usual vast and unlimited years of experience, was there, and swore positively to statements which a ten year-old boy who had been a week in the business ought to be ashamed to make. He had examined the wreck with a view of solving the mystery (?) The matter was as much of a mystery now as on the day of the explosion. His theories were exploded as fast as he presented them. The boiler must have been empty. If it had been full of water it could not possibly have exploded, etc., etc. And then a lot more nonsense about the "peculiar" construction of the boiler. As a matter of fact there was nothing peculiar about the boiler or its connections. Everything was precisely like all boilers of this class, of which there are probably hundreds of thousands in daily operation throughout the country, and moreover they were all right. Now let us inquire what caused the explosion. Everything was all right at 8 o'clock the previous evening, for water was drawn at that time. The fire was built in the range at 4 o'clock A. M. It is admitted that the cold water supply pipes were frozen, for no water could be had for kitchen use. It is also proved absolutely that the hot water supply was frozen or otherwise stopped up, by the fact that at 7 o'clock the plumber who came to thaw out the pipes opened the hot water cock and got "neither water nor steam." Here was his opportunity to prevent any trouble, but he let it pass. Any one who understood his business would have known that there must have been a tremendous pressure in the boiler at this time, as the range had been fired steadily for three hours; there were about eight square feet of heating surface exposed to the fire by the circulating pipe in the range, and there had been no ou...